How Social Technologies Are Creating A New Paradigm For Addressing Business Objectives

As the industry faces serious challenges – greater regulatory hurdles, patent loss of blockbuster drugs, increased pressure to cut costs and improve productivity, and company mergers and acquisitions leading to subsequent restructurings and downsizings – the time is now for new ideas and solutions. While change can be threatening, it can also be revitalizing, giving an organization more efficient and effective ways to approach business objectives. Incorporating social technologies into business strategies can help companies manage their budgetary, compliance and engagement issues, which are so often a challenge.

Within3, the market leader in leveraging social technologies to build secure, collaborative work environments for healthcare, is helping companies address business objectives in new ways and, specific to these case studies, gain greater impact from advisory boards. Invitation-only and client owned, Within3’s virtual advisory boards enable brand leaders, physicians and other stakeholders to share the latest scientific and clinical updates in an interactive environment.

Requiring less time to implement and conduct than live meetings, virtual advisory boards give pharmaceutical companies the ability to accelerate the time to market responsiveness. In addition, the format allows them to think differently about program objectives, providing options not previously available. By applying an integrated solution combining real-time video conferencing with ongoing asynchronous discussion via discussion threads, a virtual environment can either augment or replace in-person advisory boards.

These environments are built from the ground up and seamlessly integrate features to facilitate deeper clinical discussions among advisors while providing rich tools for the pharmaceutical company. Safe and secure, several safeguards are built in to ensure compliance. Advisor profiles are included to aid in personalizing the virtual work environment, promoting a sense of camaraderie and mutual support among advisors and at-a-glance tools give moderators an opportunity to quickly assess member participation.

Advisors value the ease-of-use and accessibility and, with very minimal guidance, quickly adapt to the technology to engage with others online. The ability to follow a discussion thread and respond asynchronously allows them to participate at their convenience. Additionally, they value the opportunity to review other advisors’ comments and to respond with more thoughtful, comprehensive insights.

This case study investigates how Within3 supported a culture of innovation by introducing three pharmaceutical companies to secure, regulatory-compliant virtual advisory boards.